Electric fuses mounted within metal enclosures and electric cutouts are ordinarily of the expulsion type and thus must be constructed so as to withstand conditions which occur when interruption is effected at the peak of the alternating current wave.
Current limiting fuses are constructed so as to interrupt alternating electric current on the ascending portion of the current wave so that interruption occurs at an instantaneous current value substantially less than the peak value of such current wave. For this reason, current limiting fuses are preferable for many circuit interrupting applications because they effectively limit the magnitude of instantaneous current which must be interrupted.
Known previous applications of current limiting fuses for use as replacement devices for expulsion fuses mounted within metal enclosures and for electric cutouts of the expulsion type have been limited to a single dimensional structure and thus are not well suited for easy application for different current capacities and different voltages.